Picked up a 1928 Oakland #6 Baseheater! Heres my plan

franco b wrote:

echos67 wrote:Very nice Richard, never thought of the round fire pots having that effect but I can visualize it from your description.

You can see that vortex pattern when re loading and have a brisk fire. The flames go clockwise looked at from above.

Definitely will check it out next time I have the stove running, just waiting on the trim parts and temps are supposed to get into mid 50's low 60's in a few days absolutely crazy !

ez2remember wrote:

wsherrick wrote:Congratulations on a magnificent stove. Put all of your worries aside. This stove will do nothing except amaze you once you learn how to operate it. You have made two correct choices, 1. is to burn coal, 2. is to get a base heater. You now own one of the most advanced, efficient coal heaters ever made.
And you also have all of us here to help you with any questions you may have. Don't forget to show us plenty of pictures and keep us informed as you progress along.
Oh, I almost forgot. You don't need a barometric damper, in fact it may hamper the performance of your stove.

You can operate these stoves safely to around 600 degrees as a constant. Since I have the other small base heater upstairs I never need to run the No 6 above 400 or so. If I didn't use the small stove I would operate the big stove up around 500. My stove likes to run around 450. A 50 pound load of coal at that temperature will last a whole day.
The thing is every house and every chimney is different. Your set up will have its own unique characteristics.
Coal burning is learned only one way, by actually doing it. Again don't worry we've got you covered.

I will scrap the Baro then. Should the damper on the elbow be closed mostly then?

Thanks and once it is up and running I will definately post a few pics. William, would you mind giving me some details about your stove pipe and chimney? It's a through wall right? Are there any critical dimensions for chimney and stove pipe installs that I need to know about? (Ie- does the vertical stove pipe coming off the stove need to be a certain length, or does the horizontal pipe that penetrates the wall have to have an upward angle, or could it be level?)
Thanks again for all the advice
-Steve

Your stove pipe doesn't need any strange or unusual configurations. You most likely have a six inch collar and you will simply use six inch black pipe. My stove is connected to an 8 inch thimble by two vertical pieces of pipe, one 90 degree elbow and a 6" to 8" adapter to fit into the thimble. I have a two flue masonry chimney on my house one goes to the basement and the other goes to the living room above. It is a future project to remove the 8 inch thimbles and replace them with 6 inch ones.

The damper on the rear, exhaust elbow is a check damper. You should rarely have to use it. It is used when there is an extreme draft situation. While you run the stove in base burner mode any strong draft is inconsequential. You mainly use the check damper when operating the stove in direct draft. What the check damper does is short circuit the draft coming through the bottom primary dampers and through the fire. It slows the draft down by weakening the pull through the stove. It works much like a hole in a vacuum cleaner hose. If there is a hole in the hose, then the suction on the business end is weakened.

Concerning that check damper on the elbow. Though it's intended use is just as William has described, it can be very dangerous.

The old manual feed central heating boilers where very common. They all had a check damper on the top of the boiler and most opened them to control the fire because the ash pits and air controls were not very air tight. As soon as you entered one of these houses you could smell coal gas. It was also common to read in the paper of people overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning.

If your draft is so strong that it is a problem then you would be far better advised to install a barometric damper than use the check damper. They should never have been there as they only compensate for a badly fitted ash door and air control.

franco b wrote:Concerning that check damper on the elbow. Though it's intended use is just as William has described, it can be very dangerous.

The old manual feed central heating boilers where very common. They all had a check damper on the top of the boiler and most opened them to control the fire because the ash pits and air controls were not very air tight. As soon as you entered one of these houses you could smell coal gas. It was also common to read in the paper of people overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning.

If your draft is so strong that it is a problem then you would be far better advised to install a barometric damper than use the check damper. They should never have been there as they only compensate for a badly fitted ash door and air control.

I can agree that on a well made stove, the check damper is rarely ever used. I never have a need to use it on the Glenwood No 6. The stove is always under complete control as there is NO air leakage through the doors or the primary drafts.
The far safer and better design of check dampers are in the stoves with internally suspended fire pots, like my other stove. The check damper is internal and there is no chance of of back drafting into the house, It just simply slows the internal flow of air inside the stove by sending some of the primary air into the back pipe to simply go around the fire, then into the chimney.

Yes, I forgot about that other method. Very clever and much safer. What a shame that there is no longer the innovation that went on 100 years ago. Of course the huge production numbers and competition helped a lot to stimulate it. The only real advancement in 100 years I can think of is the thermostat and I know you view that as doubtful. As an enthusiast if I want to try something new I have to look at the old. The good part is that with enough looking some decent old stoves are there for decent prices. New, I could not afford to try different stoves.

That Oakland stove of yours sure is a nice one. Congratulation on the purchase. You will really like that stove once you get it figured out. I've heated with coal for about 10 years or so and burned wood for 15 years before that, and the coal is SO much nicer. I've never had a new stove so I really don't know anything about them. But I have had 6-7 old stoves over the years including a large gravity furnace with a 24" firepot! That thing will heat a house! I just gave that to a friend of mine last week and will help him set it up in his house. Anyway, these base-heaters really work well. I have an old baseburner from the late 1890's and though it's not large enough to heat my whole house with a 12" firepot, it puts out more heat than I would have expected. I have a chance to buy a larger baseburner and probably will after my experience with this small stove.

That check draft that's in with the ash-pit on these baseburners is really a handy thing. It took me awhile reading through the posts on this website to figure out what it was really for. The only mention I have seen of that in old stove catalogs is that you can open it all the way to keep dust down when you clean the ash pit! But it really is effective to check the fire at night. I've never had any trouble controling the fire on any of the old stoves I've had as long as they were used with a bit of sense and everything is like it should be. I usually leave my furnace fan run when it's really cold out and that helps circulate the air around as well. My stove is in the basement but I do have a cook stove upstairs so when it's really cold out I can put a fire in that. I also think you probably get more heat out of a stove like that, than you do from the fancy base-burners. Maybe not, but it seems with the firepot exposed to the room air, rather than being behind the mica doors, more radiant heat would be out into the room. But, if you were going to have this form of heat up in your parlor, less radiant heat might be a good thing, as it would blister the varnish on your piano!

Nice stove though. Good luck with the old girl!

EarlH wrote:That Oakland stove of yours sure is a nice one. Congratulation on the purchase. You will really like that stove once you get it figured out. I've heated with coal for about 10 years or so and burned wood for 15 years before that, and the coal is SO much nicer. I've never had a new stove so I really don't know anything about them. But I have had 6-7 old stoves over the years including a large gravity furnace with a 24" firepot! That thing will heat a house! I just gave that to a friend of mine last week and will help him set it up in his house. Anyway, these base-heaters really work well. I have an old baseburner from the late 1890's and though it's not large enough to heat my whole house with a 12" firepot, it puts out more heat than I would have expected. I have a chance to buy a larger baseburner and probably will after my experience with this small stove.

That check draft that's in with the ash-pit on these baseburners is really a handy thing. It took me awhile reading through the posts on this website to figure out what it was really for. The only mention I have seen of that in old stove catalogs is that you can open it all the way to keep dust down when you clean the ash pit! But it really is effective to check the fire at night. I've never had any trouble controling the fire on any of the old stoves I've had as long as they were used with a bit of sense and everything is like it should be. I usually leave my furnace fan run when it's really cold out and that helps circulate the air around as well. My stove is in the basement but I do have a cook stove upstairs so when it's really cold out I can put a fire in that. I also think you probably get more heat out of a stove like that, than you do from the fancy base-burners. Maybe not, but it seems with the firepot exposed to the room air, rather than being behind the mica doors, more radiant heat would be out into the room. But, if you were going to have this form of heat up in your parlor, less radiant heat might be a good thing, as it would blister the varnish on your piano!

Nice stove though. Good luck with the old girl!

Hi Earl and welcome to the forum! Your right the old stoves are easy to run and "everything is as it should be". I use two Glenwoods, the Modern oak 116 in my avatar (and middle of the house chimney) and a 208C range cook stove in the kitchen. They both heat my old house pretty well and as it should be. The fact that you can run the furnace fan is pretty cool idea for those that had hot air. Helps to distribute the stove heat I bet.

I have no idea what kind of BTUs these baseburners put out. But what I can tell you is, my oil furnace is rated at 138,000 BTUs per hour. I don't run it. I completely heat my house with my Glenwood #6. I have a full oil tank currently and that won't change till spring and only if we get a hot and cold spring and I let the coal fire go out and then we get a cold snap and I don't feel like starting it back up. Then I'll run my oil furnace. I just had my house at 76 degrees running that Glenwood ....

The baseburner you have is an excellent one. Probably out performs my Glenwood. But even if it doesn't, it should work fine for you. Like someone else said on here, it will depend more on how you have your house set up with the position of your stove and how many square feet it is... You need natural convection air flow... Fans are a pain...

dj

dlj wrote:I have no idea what kind of BTUs these baseburners put out. But what I can tell you is, my oil furnace is rated at 138,000 BTUs per hour. I don't run it. I completely heat my house with my Glenwood #6. I have a full oil tank currently and that won't change till spring and only if we get a hot and cold spring and I let the coal fire go out and then we get a cold snap and I don't feel like starting it back up. Then I'll run my oil furnace. I just had my house at 76 degrees running that Glenwood ....

The baseburner you have is an excellent one. Probably out performs my Glenwood. But even if it doesn't, it should work fine for you. Like someone else said on here, it will depend more on how you have your house set up with the position of your stove and how many square feet it is... You need natural convection air flow... Fans are a pain...

dj

It hurts me to say it, but I've got to sell it
Long story short, but my wife wants it out, and if I want to stay with her, I gotta sell it. I put sooooo much work into getting it up and running, but now I am super dissapointed that it has to go. the classified is right at the bottom of this post. Someone take it off my hands please. it's too beautiful to just sit and not run.

1928 Oakland #6 Baseburner- Same as Glenwood #6

ez2remember..... If I were in that situation I know it would be hard to choose between my wife or that gorgeous Okland baseheater. I think I would have to go out and buy her a brand new heavy coat along with a pair of warm gloves and also a pair of nice insulated boots because it is really cold out there and I wouldn't want to feel bad while I was cozied up nice and warm next to my Okland #6 baseheater. Stove would have to stay. Nah, all kidding aside that is a heartbreaker to get rid of that work of art.

That is heartbreaking though I can understand someone being hyper sensitive to the threat of CO poisoning especially with the dog alone in the house.

There are alarms that will dial a phone number if the house gets too cold or if there is a flood. Possibly the same thing could be done with CO.

You could still install a wood stove in your chimney and enjoy a fire even if you just use wood bricks which are cleaner than wood as far as mess goes.

GOOD NEWS!
I was taking pics of the stove this morning and my wife comes up to me and says that she will try to get used to the stove being in the house. We are going to burn it for a month and see if she gets more comfortable with it. If so I get to keep it, if not I will sell it.
I had a buyer lined up and ready to buy ( Sorry Barry!), but if I CAN keep it, I WILL keep it. I am back in Excited mode.

-Steve

Steve

SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!! I am sure your wife will come to LOVE the stove.

That's ok Steve I hope it works out, you have a lot of time and $$$ in it.I will (when i get a new dog)put the dog outside with a door into the garage and a heating pad in his doghouse just to be safe but anything can happen at anytime.Take care Barry

So Steve, what line did you use to get her to change her mind? I've got my fingers crossed for you. Don't forget the updated pix of the new install. Maybe one with the warm and contented wife sitting next to it.